I have had my car for almost two years and have never had a problem with smoke or hesitation or anything. Its been running perfect. Today I was in Walmart and decided to change the spark plugs since I never have before and dont know how old the current ones were. I looked up my car in a computer database and it told me I needed Autolite 3923. I bought four of them and came home with my dad to change them.

Upon taking the firse plug out we found it was sitting in a pool of oil. Socket on the ratchet was a good 2" long and it looked like it had been submerged in oil as we took it out. We found this to be the case with every one of the plugs we removed. After each one we took out, one of the new ones went in. My dad says hes been working on cars his whole life and has never seen this before, and that he is very surprised its even running at this point. Upon restarting the car there was now a huge amount of white smoke that poured from the exhaust. It did not do this before the new plugs were in. Also, when the engine sat idling for about 10 min, the smoke amount died down, until it is revved.

Im taking this to a mechanic ASAP, probably tomorrow. What are some possible things that could cause this? I know it will most likely be expensive, but any estimation of price would be greatly appreciated. Any more info needed, please ask. TIA

Account disabled upon user's request.

-CODE4

Woah man! Before you spend any $$$, talk to us first! That's what this board is here for.

First of all - don't worry! This has happened to a lot of cars on this board. It's caused by leaking O rings around the spark plug wells, not a leaky head gasket or anything else - which a lot of people jump to conclusions about.

Reason for the white smoke: When you took out the spark plugs, all the oil that was in the wells was no longer held up by the spark plug, so the oil fell directly into the cylinders. So, this oil was being burned for the first few minutes as you started the car. No need for worry.

Your car is fine and there is no reason to spend any money to diagnose this problem. Just next time you take off the valve cover and such, put on some new O rings.

2gnt: '99 RS-T, killed by a toyota, pending rebuild...
Daily: Volt
Daily #2: '99 EVG ebike- STOLEN by PEDRO

Wow, thanks for the informative and quick reply. Do you know what size o rings I need? Or what exactly should I ask for from an autop parts store? I really hope it was just a leaky o ring. So what should I do,just let it idle or run to burn off the extra oil that leaked in when I removed my plug? Cause I did notice the amount of smoke did start to reduce after a few min.

Account disabled upon user's request.

-CODE4

ya, always consult the board first.... your mechanic will proly charge you 50-100 bux, and for about 14 for a gasket set, and 3 if you dont have a 8mm deep socket, and about an hour of your time..

look under the main page, i think corbin did a writeup on changing your valve cover gaskets... just pay closer attention to the spark plug grommet/gaskets.... make sure they arent pinched at all

good luck, not a big problem at all... a lil fix, and she'll be like new...

03 srt-4 13.130@112.47mph (n2o, stock turbo, 10/2003)
now: 20g, portfueler, bpu+++ (track/dyno times tbd...)

i farted on your wiki

yea, what Vegas said, the O ring gasket set should be less than $20. but you don't even need to do that anytime soon. Just next time you are taking apart the head, or changing the timing belt, would be a good time.

Your welcome! You could always give me some rating points, ya know!

2gnt: '99 RS-T, killed by a toyota, pending rebuild...
Daily: Volt
Daily #2: '99 EVG ebike- STOLEN by PEDRO

Thanks a lot, and about the points I was about to do that. I just took her for a drive for a few min and it ran fine. Upon starting now there isnt smoke, under hard acceleration there is still some though. I think it just has a little bit left in the cylinder.

Account disabled upon user's request.

-CODE4